My Private Whispers and Light Blog

What Is Your Happiest Memory

I like to ask people, “What is your happiest memory?”

The answers are usually what you would expect.
A wedding day.
The birth of a child.
A hard-won accomplishment.
A milestone birthday.
So many firsts. This and that.

But once in a blue moon, someone gives an answer that stops you in your tracks. One that reaches deeper than events or celebrations and speaks straight to the heart. Those answers reveal so much about a person, don’t you think?

And then he answered.

“The happiest moment I have ever known was when we were driving to the photographer’s studio and you suddenly blurted out, ‘I really love you.’ You startled yourself when you said it. But in that instant, I knew you were in love with me. And I think that was the happiest I have ever been, bar none.”

It was not what I expected him to say. Yet I remember that moment today as vividly as if it had just happened. The light. The motion of the car. The surprise in my own voice. One simple sentence, spoken without planning or hesitation, changed everything.

That day was April 10, 1977.
We were married on January 27, 1978.

Soon we will celebrate 48 years of marriage, with 50 shining just ahead on the horizon.

And here is the quiet miracle of it all.
We are still happy.
Still in love.
Blessed by God.

He was my first and only blind date in November of 1976. Even though he arrived an hour late, we still went dancing that night. And somehow, we have never really stopped dancing.

A special note I treasure. After our first date, he mailed me a card. The couple on the front looked just like us, our perfect doppelgängers. Inside it read, “I woke up this morning and thought of you all day long.” I still have that card. He signed it, “Always and forever, David.”

I am a hopeful romantic. I believe in love at first sight.

And I live for the happily ever after endings, the ones I write, and the ones I read.